1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the arts of reservation systems for use by individuals, groups of travelers, travel agents and travel wholesalers. This invention also relates to the arts of online business and workflow automation, with especially applicability to the hospitality industry.
2. Background of the Invention
The hospitality industry has undergone many changes in its reservation and booking procedures with the advent of the Internet. Large “chain” and franchise hotels frequently operate proprietary reservation systems that are Internet-based, including websites where travel agents and individual travelers may obtain quotes, property information, and book reservations. These chain hotels can rely upon significant nationwide advertising and name recognition to secure their clientele and attract them to the reservation web site.
Travel agents and travel wholesalers (hereinafter referred to as “agents”) are often consulted by travelers to make hotel reservations for them, especially when there is a group traveling together, when the client is looking for a “package” vacation or tour, or when the client is unfamiliar with the destination.
Once a travel agent receives a request to book a franchise or chain-affiliated hotel stay from a client, they generally use a well-known Global Distribution System (GDS), such as Sabre or Galileo, to make the reservation. The GDS sends the reservation information through a router, which identifies the intended hotel and submits the reservation. The router, the GDS system, the agent, and often a Credit Card Clearinghouse all receive some of the revenue as compensation, in the form of a percentage commission or a flat-rate per transaction based upon negotiated rates.
Turning to FIG. 1, details the GDS-based process of handling reservations for a chain or franchise hotel is shown. A guest or group 11 approaches a travel agent or travel wholesaler 12 in order to make reservations. The agent takes the traveler's travel preferences and information 101, including information such as:                (a) the guest's travel dates and destination,        (b) details about the type of room desired (smoking/non-smoking, view, bed configuration, floor, etc.), and        (c) billing information (credit card number, address, telephone number, etc.)        
The agent then contacts the GDS system 14, either through a web-based portal or through a proprietary terminal arrangement, to make the reservation. The GDS system 14 forwards the information and reservation request to a switch 15, which forwards the reservation to the appropriate hotel's Property Management System (PMS) 16 to be logged, thus taking the available room or rooms out of available inventory in the PMS.
In this process, each of the agent, GDS and switch receive a payment for their services in the reservation booking. If the traveler is paying by credit card, a Credit Card Clearinghouse (CCH) may also receive and process a payment. Typically, the GDS system will receive about 8.2% of the hotel charge as a commission, the switch will receive about $4.00 per transaction (per booking), and the agent and credit card fees may account for another 10% of the total charge for the hotel stay. Normally, these fees are deducted from the hotels revenues, and are seen as the cost of obtaining the booking by the hotel. This total cost of obtaining this reservation or selling this room for this period can be summed as Revenue Pool 1 (19), as shown in FIG. 1.
Independently-owned and non-franchise hotels, however, still rely almost solely on the referrals and revenue from independent travel agents and travel wholesalers to book reservations for their properties in advance because they cannot support the cost of a dedicated reservation system, and because they can acquaint travel agents and wholesalers with their properties through other methods. These types of properties are found most often in cities and regions which are major tourism and vacation destinations, such as Hawaii and Las Vegas. The owners and managers of these properties often invite travel agents and wholesalers to visit their hotels to experience the amenities and location of the property first hand in order to allow the travel agents to personally recommend the hotels to their clientele.
The current reservation procedure for independent hotels is centered on the use of travel agents and travel wholesalers. When a guest or travel group wishes to travel, they approach an agent, who makes recommendations based on their personal experience and knowledge of the hotels in the area. The agent then records the clients' vacation preferences in addition to billing information.
Unfortunately, there is no standardized format or template for information that the agent must collect, which means some important details of the clients' wants and needs may be overlooked. Also, the agent could forget details about the hotel, such as the lack of an ocean view, or a no-pets policy, for example, which might also cause difficulties in communication of the clients' preferences. The most pressing communication problem is, however, the inability of agents to dynamically review the available inventory of the hotel. Agents may make reservations for rooms in a hotel that is already fully booked, or for rooms (the honeymoon suite, for example) that are already reserved.
These independent hotels typically receive their reservations directly from the agents, usually by fax 18, as shown in FIG. 1. Employees of the hotels are responsible for entering the visitor's information, preferences and other data into the hotel's PMS in order to confirm the reservation and remove the room from available inventory. The success of this process is highly dependent on the thoroughness of the agent in collecting and forwarding the traveler's preferences and personal information, as well as the accuracy and thoroughness with which the hotel employee enters the information into the PMS system.
For example, an agent may recall that a particular independent hotel has a set of rooms with beach view, and thus may request a beach view room. If the hotel employee fails to notice this on the fax, which is usually in a freehand a non-standardized format, the guest may be booked for a non-beach view room. This will not be apparent until the guest arrives and is dissatisfied with the room choice. If the hotel is completely booked and the guest cannot be moved to a beach view room, the guest is at minimum very dissatisfied and at most may be due a refund for the hotel fees.
To compound this problem further, agents who book reservations through such direct methods typically receive larger commissions, shown as Revenue Pool 2 100, on the order of 10% for travel agents and up to 30% for wholesales, which reflects the savings of not having a GDS and switch involved in the booking, and serves as an incentive to the agent to book the independent hotel for their clientele.
As a result, many of the reservations made by agents directly with independently-owned hotels contain errors, at the surprise of the traveler who was assured personally by the agent that the agent was familiar with the property, and at the economic loss of the hotel which pays a higher commission for this type of sale and which often must pay for replacement accommodations and/or forgo premium rates for upgraded room types.
Overbooking, along with all of the aforementioned difficulties in communication between the agent and the hotel, decreases customer satisfaction, and therefore decreases repeat business, which causes an immediate as well as a long term loss of revenue for the hotel.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method which allows travel agents, travel wholesalers, and travelers to book reservations with independently-owned and nonaffiliated hotels in a manner which avoids overbooking, communicates accurately and completely reservation preferences, and provides a standardized or common set of information regarding the guests such as billing details, confirmation address, etc. Further, there exists a need in the art for this system and method to be available through commonly used technologies, such as the Internet and web browsers, in order to be useful to a broad range of users and to facilitate the greatest possible acceptance and success of the system.